Ankgor Wat

Angkor Wat is as beautiful as described. It took 300,000 people, 600,000 elephants and 37 years to build and is the only temple that was not left to the jungle many many years ago. The front is under renovation, so the amazing 'first view' you read about was marred with green construction netting. Bad for us, good for the future. We found a similar but unmarred view from the side, photo attached. Children under 12 are not allowed to climb to the top, so Jim and the Goose stayed below and I climbed the steep stairs for the tremendous vistas.

We visited two other sites as well, including Ta Som, the most distant Ankgor temple and home to an amazing strangling fig tree with roots dripping down over the temple structure.

In non-temple related news: In most bathroom stalls you will find a sign letting people know that they are not to smoke, stand on the seat, wash their feet, or shower with the little bidet faucet provided. It doesn't get much better than that.

We hopped into our favorite tuk-tuk at 9:00 this morning for a full day of temple touring, and concluded with some delicious ice cream at 3:30. It was a great two days...but extremely hot and fairly crowded. Maybe we are not as cultured or as sophisticated as some because after two full days, we have had our fill (you're right...I photographed a bathroom sign. Of course I'm not as sophistocated as some!). The temples are awe inspiring and beautiful and historical, but we are all done. I am sure Addi is 10x more done than we are, but she hasn't complained once! We have arranged a day in the countryside for tomorrow for a change of pace.

Side Note: We have decided to skip Phnom Penh and head straight to Vietnam on the 28th. Although Jim and I would really like to see the Khmer Rouge Genocide Museum and the Killing Fields there, we have decided that it is just too deep for Addi. She is a very observant and inquisitive little girl and we don't want to expose her to it (she is too smart to accept BS cover-up explanations). She still asks why grown-ups (the Burmese) broke the Buddhas in Thailand, so I'm not sure how we would do with mass torture and systematic murder. There are also temples and pagodas to see there...but we are ready for a break from those.

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